Of Course
Recap The 's river patrol pulls Barney out of the one night in March 2010. Upon being asked to explain by a police officer how he got there, Barney explains that the chain of events started one week before. He had picked up another woman at MacLaren's. However, she suddenly leaves him just when they were ready to return to his place. Meanwhile, Robin and Don, who have established good chemistry on their morning show, hang out with Marshall and Lily at the bar. Marshall encourages Robin to keep Don, to the point that he later pretends to be Robin accepting Don's invitation for a date. At Ted's apartment, Barney tells the gang about his failure to snag the woman. Ted claims that the woman may have read tips from a certain book called Of Course You're Still Single, Take a Look at Yourself, You Dumb Slut. However, after checking out the book for a loophole, Barney discovers that the woman he met at the bar, Anita, is the author and announces that he is going to seduce her. Later at the bar, Robin admits to Marshall and Lily that she met Anita during a segment on her show, where in she told Anita the truth about Barney and their breakup. Anita shows how to break Barney's spirit by saying "No," which she demonstrates on the cameraman who suddenly gets her some coffee. After Barney had talked about one too many of his new ladies, Robin calls Anita and told her to put her plan into action. Marshall confesses to Lily about being upset that he'd been pushing Robin to keep up with Barney's sexual activity after their breakup. He was particularly mad at himself for rubbing Barney's exploits in Robin's face through song ("Bang Bang Bangity Bang"). Barney tells Ted about his failure to find a counter-strategy in Anita's book. After Ted tells him (in song) of a plan to combine 17 dates into one "super-date", they go to a strip club. Robin cancels her date with Don after Ted informs her of the super-date Barney was planning. Marshall later vents his anger at Ted for crushing Robin - he (and also Barney) joined Marshall on the "bang bang, bangity bang" song. Then Ted realizes he, too, had been a jerk to Robin after she tried to bounce back from her breakup with Barney. After hugging Robin at the restroom, the three head to Barney's apartment, where Lily narrates to him every occasion that Robin cried somewhere else and later vented her frustration at the shooting range after hearing Barney brag about his sexual conquests. Barney heads off to the shooting range and apologizes to Robin about preparing a wonderful date for Anita when he never tried it even once with her. He decides to let Robin and Don go on his super-date, promising as well to Robin that he would not sleep with Anita. Anita confronts Barney at the bar for not showing up on their own date and finds herself being treated to her own "No" strategy. Barney is defiant and Anita offers him multiple compromise offers, the last of which prompts him to head to the Hudson River and jump. Barney is later fined $500 for the misdemeanor and watches fireworks meant to cap off the super date, while Don and Robin kiss watching them. Robin declines to talk to the gang about the date the following morning, but later breaks into the "Bang Bang Bangity Bang" song, and everyone except Barney joins in. Continuity *Marshall's "song-writing" abilities have been demonstrated in previous episodes, including , , and . *Robin's fondness for guns was first revealed in , where she also takes Marshall to the shooting range to get over Lily leaving him. *Lily reveals that Robin has been upset with Barney since their break-up in , telling the guys how she started crying after Barney gave a detailed description of a girl he hooked up with in , and felt hurt when he held his number up on TV during the Super Bowl in . *In , Future Ted mentions that Robin and Don would be dating within three months, a prediction that is fulfilled here. *Robin says "but...umm" during her interview with Anita, a habit first pointed out in . *Robin decides to let Mike off her hook in (albeit after doing one more load of laundry for her), and he appears to have gotten on Anita's here.﻿ Future References (Contains Spoilers) *When Robin, Ted, and Lily sing "Bang Bang Bangity Bang", Marshall plays, on a banjolele, the ringtone of Barney's "Magic Phone" (" ") from . The song also reappears in many episodes, including , , and . Gallery Of course - super date.png|Ted tells Barney about the Super Date Of course - ted and the book.png|Ted displays the book Of Course 01.jpg Of course - robin and don.png|Robin and Don's first kiss Of course - barney barf.png|Barney realizes he's been a jerk to Robin Of+Course+26.jpg Of+Course+25.jpg Of+Course+24.jpg Of+Course+23.jpg Of+Course+22.jpg Of+Course+21.jpg Of+Course+20.jpg Of+Course+19.jpg Of+Course+18.jpg Of+Course+17.jpg Of+Course+16.jpg Of+Course+15.jpg Of+Course+14.jpg Of+Course+13.jpg Of+Course+12.jpg Of+Course+11.jpg Of+Course+10.jpg Of+Course+09.jpg Of+Course+08.jpg Of+Course+07.jpg Of+Course+06.jpg Of+Course+04.jpg Of+Course+03.jpg Of+Course+02.jpg Of+Course+01.jpg Memorable Quotes "Of Course You're Still Single, Take a Look at Yourself You Dumb Slut" :—title of Anita's book ---- "Bang, bang, bangity bang. I said a bang, bang, bangity bang!" :—Marshall's song about Barney's conquests. Joined in by Ted and Barney and later reprised by Robin. ---- Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *In , Marshall states that he has never been inside the ladies' room, but in this episode he enters the ladies' room with Ted and Lily to comfort Robin. However, this is not a goof because the facts of The Time Traveler was even before of this episode, as says Barney to Ted at the end. *The Star Wars stormtrooper previously seen in in Barney's apartment makes a return. It was removed by Lily when she moved in, was present in and appeared to be absent during scenes of Barney's apartment in . However, it is now a standard stormtrooper where as previously it was a clone trooper. Technically, however, this is not a goof, since the armor was previously described as "stormtrooper" armor, and actually only featured the front portion of the armor, with no back. *When Mike offers Robin and Anita coffee you can clearly see in the background a sign that says "No food or drink on set". **However this might not be a goof because we've seen the whole crew of the show be unprofessional on set before. Ex: Don not wearing pants, smoking live and using foul language on air; Mike being on a "chicken run", playing with paper planes, falling asleep while recording and a bunch of member not wearing pants because of Don's influence. Allusions and Outside References *Marshall mentions that he is still angry at the from Star Wars when he punches the head off Barney's . *After throwing up in his stormtrooper helmet Barney admits he did something worse when came out. *Barney jumps into the Hudson River from Riverside Park. Music *Super Date - sung by Ted to Barney Other Notes * Ted says that the French restaurant for the "super-date" is named "Tomber Les Culottes" which means "drop the panties" in English. *Before the episode, Cobie Smulders had objected to the show's depiction of Barney and Robin after their breakup: I was pretty vocal about it. You know, "I don’t think that Robin would be sitting here as he’s talking about fucking some chick." And they wrote the episode that revealed she was extremely emotional the break up. Guests * - Anita *Benjamin Koldyke - Don Frank *Joni Bovill - Officer McKie *Ron Nicolosi - Mike *Roni Meron - The Girl at the Bar (uncredited) Reception * Donna Bowman of rated the episode with a grade A-. http://www.avclub.com/articles/of-course,38995/ * Brian Zoromski of gave the episode 9 out of 10. http://tv.ign.com/articles/107/1076118p1.html * Cindy McLennan of rated the episode with a grade B-. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/how-i-met-your-mother/of-course-1.php * The St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 9 out of 10 stars. "...who even knows what a kravat is? And would someone wear one on a superdate?" References External Links * * * Category:Episodes Category:Season 5